Gregory Norris - Down with the Fallen - A Post-Apocalyptic Horror Anthology

The woman atop the car was growling like an angry bear. Her torn lips had formed into a snarl and blood mixed with spit dribbled from her chin.

She clattered her teeth together, almost musically as she stared across at me and I felt my heart sink.

Off to the right, the exposed rib man was moving around to flank us. To the left, two more equally as gruesome creatures stalked expertly.

They were preparing to attack, and we were cornered.

We had to act.

I had an idea, it was desperate, but it was all I had.

“Follow me,” I barked and made my move.

I threw my weight against the car. I’m no strongman, but it was enough to rock the car. Caught completely by surprise, the woman perched atop the roof tumbled roughly to the ground beside me.

Landing roughly on her back, she immediately started lashing her arms around and biting wildly at my ankles.

At one point I felt her flimsy fingers grasp at the hem of my tattered trousers, but I pulled myself away out of her reach. Cassy was on her in an instant.

The young woman’s attack caught me completely by surprise.

I hadn’t expected her to be a survivor . She had come across so innocent and lost but now she was like a girl possessed. As the undead woman gnashed her teeth and reached out toward me, Cassy slid across the road and expertly buried her knife into the woman.

With two swift strikes, one from each of her kitchen knives, the undead woman finally died. It was not a glorious death, but something told me she had finally found release from her tortured afterlife.

Staring across at me over the dead woman, I saw a madness in Cassy’s eyes and knew I, too, had to act.

I rounded around the car without a backward glance and was met by the rib man. He threw his arms out toward me but now I was ready.

I was in the mode of survival at all costs and thrust my knife out toward his head.

The first attack missed, but I was quick to replace it with a more precise attack and very soon the man lay dead at my feet.

A massive blow struck my back and threw me to the floor.

I landed roughly and felt the bite of rough tarmac against my face and arms. The knife tumbled from my grip, and my pistol slid from the holster and across the floor away from me.

I was unarmed.

I was exposed, and I was vulnerable.

Gasping for air from my winded lungs, I rolled away from whatever had knocked me to the ground and fumbled blindly for my blade. Finally, my fingers wrapped around the handle, and I turned onto my back to prepare for another attack.

There was nothing there.

Instead, the remaining four of them were closing down on Cassy who now held my pistol in her trembling hands.

I knew what she was planning, but it was the wrong choice.

“No!” I yelled above the groans and chattering of the creatures.

She either didn’t hear me or didn’t listen as she ripped the trigger backward.

The gunshot echoed around the open courtyard, and although one of the zombies fell lifeless to the floor, I knew we were done.

I wasted no time and threw my body against the nearest of the remaining three sending its battered body sprawling to the floor. There was no time to despatch any of them. Instead, my priority was to knock them aside and make a dash for escape.

With all three kicked or thrown to the floor with brute force, I reached out and grasped the young girl’s arm, dragging her with me.

“What were you thinking?” I snapped angrily as I pulled her into a sprint toward the marina fence. “You never shoot unless you have to, the sound will bring them all.”

I didn’t hear her reply clearly, but in my head all I heard her say was “I know,” but right then that made no sense.

As we neared the chain-link fence, the first of the fallen zombies righted themselves and sprinted toward us.

We were desperate now and so close to sanctuary.

My fingers wrapped through the cold metal fence, and I began to pull myself up and over. The fencing wobbled dangerously loose against the supports but held against my weight. I was up and felt the bite and sting of barbed wire as I struggled to the ragged top.

“Help me!” Cassy screamed from below with her arms stretching up toward me desperately.

Reaching down, I grabbed her wrists and began to pull her up. I felt the jagged barbed wire dig into the flesh of my thighs but fought against the pain.

“Climb,” I growled through gritted teeth as she scrambled up.

With both of us precariously teetering on the top of the fence, we were both rocked as the first of the creatures slammed itself into the fence below.

And then it happened.

It wasn’t what I expected. My death wasn’t caused by the jagged teeth of the snarling undead.

It resulted from the gun that was now rested against my chest, held by the no longer trembling hands of the young girl I had helped.

“Why?” I asked as she stared emotionlessly at me balanced atop the chain-link fence.

“Survival,” she replied coldly.

The second gunshot of the night echoed through the air and I felt the bullet tear into me.

The gunshot killed me, of that I am sure.

I felt the searing pain, I think I could even smell the burning skin around the wound. As I drooped, half hanging from the top of the fence, my body went limp. My upper body hung over the marina side while my legs dangled lifelessly over the courtyard side from where we had come.

As my vision began to fade to black, I saw my killer drop from the fence and walk away toward the rows of bobbing boats.

As my vision faded, as death took me, I felt something else.

I was so close to death that I had accepted it.

Now, though, there was a new feeling. Now I know it was the zombie sinking his teeth into my calf, biting through flesh and muscle with animalistic ease. No sooner had the teeth buried themselves into my flesh than I felt a new pain.

The gunshot was no longer a concern, it didn’t even feel like it had hurt in comparison to this.

Whatever makes you a monster burns like fire.

I felt it start on my leg and as I felt my heart take its last few beats, the fire coursed through my body like a demon. Finally, with the last pound of my failing heart, my head exploded, and my vision went.

For an instant, I thought I was done. I figured I had finally been offered the peace of death, but I was wrong.

No sooner had my sight faded than it came back.

Instead of colors and images, I recognized I was now looking through new eyes.

My world was different, painted in hues of red and grey and in the distance, I could see something.

It took a second to realize what it was but it was her .

Across the marina, with my monstrous new eyes, I could see her heart pounding furiously in her chest.

I wanted it.

In mere seconds I had gone from man to beast, and it excited me.

What had repulsed me since they had first plagued our world was now strangely welcoming and serene.

Who was I to argue when the impulse was so strong?

I could see her there in the darkness, I could almost taste her even from this distance.

I was not only fueled by an insatiable thirst, a zombie thirst, but what was left of my human side wanted something else.

It wanted revenge.

Who was I to argue?

I had survived this long, and now I was what I had so desperately tried to evade.

And do you know what? It wasn’t all that bad.

Ripping myself from the fence, I felt no new pain. All that consumed me was the warm heat that now filled my veins. My body was inconsequential, it was just a means to an end. My thirst, however, that was insatiable. I needed to satisfy it, and I could see a way to do that with her.